The US Department of Agriculture's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (Aphis) has released its draft pest risk analysis on imports of Indian table grapes.
The report follows a request by the Indian government for market access for its table grapes, with Aphis outlining potential pest risks associated with allowing imports of grapes from India.
“Based on the market access request submitted by India, we [Aphis] considered the pathway to include the following processes and conditions: hand harvesting, sorting, sizing, and cooling for shipment,” the Aphis report stated. 'Based on the scientific literature, port-of-entry pest interception data, and information from the government of India, we developed a list of all potential pests with actionable regulatory status for the continental US that are known to occur in India (on any host) and to be associated with the commodity plant species (anywhere in the world).'
Of the 22 pests identified by Aphis, eight were found to be of negligible risk to the US, while 14 were found to be medium or high risk based on their likelihood of introduction.
Stakeholders are able to comment on the draft pest risk assessment until 16 December 2016.
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